Progress Report: Big Bird Gets Plucked

[Guest guest]

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 08:08:42 -0700

Progress Report: Big Bird Gets Plucked

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

The Progress Report

 

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney,

Mipe Okunseinde and Christy Harvey

 

..June 17, 2005

 

MEDIA

Big Bird Gets Plucked

 

For more than two decades, " political conservatives have been

targeting PBS ... with a stream of public relations campaigns designed

to rein in public broadcasting's independence and cut into its public

and congressional support. " Both the Nixon and Reagan administrations

attacked public broadcasting and, as speaker of the House, Newt

Gingrich tried to end its funding. E-mail petitions -- with " Save Big

Bird! " subject lines -- that implored you to save public broadcasting

from destruction used to be the stuff of urban legend. But leave it to

conservatives to ultimately succeed in turning fiction into reality.

Right-wingers are taking over the board of the Corporation for Public

Broadcasting (CPB), the agency intended to provide a buffer between

independent public broadcast networks and the partisan government. And

they are working overtime to put a conservative slant on programming,

a move that completely undermines the non-interference mandate of the

1967 Public Broadcasting Act. This week right-wingers in the House

voted to cut all federal funding for public broadcasting within the

next two years. Unless the public demands respect for independent and

public broadcasting, soon nobody will be able to tell you how to get

to Sesame Street. Write Congress and demand that they save PBS from

partisan operatives.

 

TOMLINSON'S PUBLIC CRONIES: Staunchly conservative CPB Chairman

Kenneth Tomlinson " secretly drafted a White House official to

formulate 'guiding principles' for the appointment of two ombudsmen to

monitor and critique all public broadcasting content. " Then, against

the suggestion of top public broadcasting officials, Tomlinson hired

the ombudsmen. Both have very clear ties back to conservatives and

even the Organization of News Ombudsmen, " which represents nearly a

hundred print and broadcast ombudsmen from around the world, " doesn't

trust their independence. The organization rebuffed the CPB

appointees' attempts to become full members of the group. Tomlinson is

also working to get the former co-chairman of the Republican National

Committee into the chief executive position at CPB. Additionally,

Tomlinson wants to hire the conservative " who pioneered the myth of

the 'liberal media' " to review NPR coverage.

 

TOMLINSON'S NOT SO PUBLIC CRONIES: That's the stuff Tomlinson is doing

on the surface. Without informing the rest of the board, Tomlinson

secretly doled out thousands of dollars to conservative lobbyists. The

CPB's inspector general is now investigating these Tomlinson handouts,

as well as other undisclosed money he gave to " a man in Indiana who

provided him with reports about the political leanings of guests "

invited on the show of media legend Bill Moyers. The consultant

" [tracked] 'anti-Bush' and 'anti-Tom DeLay' comments by the guests. "

CPB was " created by Congress to serve as a 'heat shield' to protect

public broadcasting from political interference ... Tomlinson is

turning it into a right-wing blowtorch. "

 

THE RIGHT WING'S DARLING: One of the lobbyists secretly hired by

Tomlinson is Brian Darling. This is the same Brian Darling who " served

as a top aide to Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) but resigned after the

disclosure that he had written a memorandum describing how to exploit

politically the life-support case of Terri Schiavo. " Initially,

Martinez denied any association with the memo and Republicans

" [accused] Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick. " In

the document, which Martinez handed over to another senator and

described as " talking points -- something that we're working on here, "

Darling calls the Schiavo case " a great political issue " that would

rouse the pro-life base.

 

THE POLL NUMBERS THE RIGHT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE: Publicly,

Tomlinson continues to maintain that he is " concerned about

perceptions that not all parts of the political spectrum are reflected

on public broadcasting. " What Tomlinson isn't talking about are his

own poll numbers, which say the exact opposite. Earlier this year, the

CPB hired the right-leaning polling firm Tarrance Group to investigate

these political bias claims. After conducting two " National Public

Opinions, " pollsters found 80 percent of Americans saw PBS programming

as " fair and balanced " -- and they didn't mean like Fox News -- while

90 percent believed that PBS " provides high quality programming. "

Furthermore, a majority of respondents called PBS " more trustworthy

than CNN, Fox News Channel and other mainstream news outlets. "

Tomlinson " buried [the results] in an annual report to Congress "

without releasing them to the press or even sharing them with PBS and NPR.

 

HOUSE CALLS FOR ELMO'S HEAD: Under a bill approved by the House

Appropriations Commitee, federal funding of CPB, which " channels

funding to the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and

individual public radio and TV stations, would be slashed by $100

million. By the year 2008, all federal money would be gone. A senior

official at National Public Radio " blamed " the funding cuts " on

Tomlinson's " 'irresponsible' charges of political bias. " The

accusation is understandable; the " political bias " claim was the same

obfuscation used back when Gingrich tried to gut CPB in 1994. And

though CPB is " supposed to encourage the growth of public

broadcasting, " its own chairman seems to have no problem with the

House's decision. Tomlinson " rejected a proposed statement by senior

officials at the corporation denouncing [the] vote. "

 

CIVIL LIBERTIES

A Path Forward For Patriot Act Reform

 

Today, the Center for American Progress, in conjunction with former

Homeland Security adviser to President Bush, Richard Falkenwrath,

announced a bipartisan recommendation for reforming the Patriot Act. A

group of sixteen former government officials -- representing every

administration since Carter -- are putting forth a compromise that

amends the language in the Patriot Act by raising the standard for

obtaining personal and business records and strengthening its civil

liberties protections, all while maintaining an important law

enforcement tool.

 

BUSH HAS BEEN INTRANSIGENT ON AMENDING THE PATRIOT ACT: Sixteen

provisions of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law passed just 45

days after 9/11, are set to expire at the end of this year. President

Bush has so far been unwilling to listen to recommendations for

amending the act, but has rather stumped on the need for Congress to

" renew them all " without modification. The conservative-led House of

Representatives recently took " a slap at President Bush " and dismissed

his veto threat by sending a clear message that changes need to be

made. The proposal set forth by the bipartisan working group seeks to

build on that momentum by offering a broader set of Patriot Act

reforms that should engender bipartisan support in both the House and

the Senate.

 

THE CASE FOR REFORM: Bush has claimed that the threat of terrorism

justifies renewal of the Patriot Act, yet the law has increasingly

been used for non-terrorism-related purposes. In his 2004 State of the

Union address, Bush said, " Key provisions of the Patriot Act are to

expire next year. The terrorist threat will not expire on that

schedule. " But former Department of Justice spokesman Mark Corallo

plainly stated, " The Patriot Act was not meant to be just for

terrorism. " And the New York Times noted in September 2003 that a

Justice Department report given to members of Congress revealed that

the Patriot Act was being used in cases " not directly related to

terrorism. " Because the Patriot Act is being increasingly used in a

wide variety of criminal cases and because President Bush has been

unwilling to negotiate any changes, the need for reform is clear. The

proposal put forward today strikes the proper balance in protecting

civil liberties and ensuring our law enforcement agencies have the

tools they need to protect us.

 

RESTORING DUE PROCESS: Congress has long been contemplating an

expansion of the Patriot Act powers under what has come to be known as

" Patriot Act II. " There has been much concern regarding the

possibility that amended versions of the Patriot Act would grant the

federal government an expanded use of administrative subpoena power.

Administrative subpoenas grant authority to federal law enforcement

agents to subpoena virtually any and all records they consider to be

vital to their case without judicial oversight. The current version of

the Patriot Act allows for a tool similar to the administrative

subpoena, a power known as a " national security letter. " National

security letters are requests for information submitted by the FBI

without judicial oversight or any finding of probable cause. In

September 2004, a federal district court judge ruled that this manner

of collecting information amounted to unconstitutional " coercive

searches. " The compromise struck today takes a different approach and

would raise the legal bar for the government to obtain these kind of

records by providing a greater measure of due process.

 

ASHCROFT WAS A MAJOR PART OF THE PROBLEM: Much of the criticism of the

Patriot Act has resulted not from the particular language in the law

but from the manner in which former Attorney General John Ashcroft

abused his powers in employing the Act. Ashcroft's refusal to be held

accountable for how he was using the Patriot Act and his unwillingness

to share information resulted in a diminished public trust for the

increased powers given to the Justice Department. For example,

Ashcroft originally said that the powers to obtain records from

libraries and businesses had never been used, but FBI memos disclosed

shortly thereafter revealed that the FBI had requested permission from

Ashcroft to use the controversial provisions. Ashcroft's refusal to be

held accountable so infuriated House Judiciary Committee Chairman

James Sensenbrenner that, according to a 5/21/04 article in CQ Weekly,

he " threatened to subpoena Attorney General John Ashcroft " to get

answers to his questions about the Patriot Act. So far, new Attorney

General Alberto Gonzales has indicated he will be more honest and more

willing to negotiate. With greater disclosure of how the Patriot Act

is being used, Congress will better serve the public in ensuring basic

liberties are not compromised.

 

 

Under the Radar

 

ETHICS -- DELAY'S 50K+ STAKE IN EXXON: As majority leader, Rep. Tom

DeLay has been pushing aggressively to shield manufacturers of the

fuel additive MTBE like Exxon from lawsuits related to groundwater

contamination. If he's successful, DeLay is likely to personally

profit. Newsday reports, " Tom DeLay owns stock worth more than $50,000

in ExxonMobil. " Jeffrey Stonecash, a political scientist at the

Maxwell School of Syracuse University said, " It looks like a serious

conflict of interest. I think the issue of owning the stock and then

promoting it just doesn't look good. " DeLay spokesman Dan Allen said

there was no problem because " everyone knows Congressman Tom DeLay

bases his votes on the merits of legislation before him and only the

merits of the legislation. "

 

PUBLIC HEALTH -- THE VACCINE COVERUP: According to a Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist, " a mercury-based

preservative in [a number of common childhood] vaccines -- thimerosal

-- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a

host of other neurological disorders among children. " Instead of

trying to protect the public, " high-level officials from the CDC and

the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the

World Health Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every

major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth

and Aventis Pasteur " convened a secret meeting " discussing how to

cover up the damaging data. " Later, " the CDC paid the Institute of

Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal,

ordering researchers to 'rule out' the chemical's link to autism. " The

drug companies also got help from " Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has

received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry,

has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200

lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. "

Read the full investigative report by Robert F. Kennedy.

 

ENVIRO -- WHITE HOUSE DOCTORS MORE CLIMATE DOCS: Changing reality to

fit your political views is a tough order, but the Bush administration

is clearly up to the task. In their latest effort to doctor scientific

documents, White House officials have been caught " working behind the

scenes [to] weaken key sections " of a global warming action proposal

that G8 countries will take up next month. " Under U.S. pressure,

negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that

would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe, set

ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and set stricter

environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, " the

Washington Post reports.

 

TORTURE -- NEW GUANTANAMO PRISON TO BE BUILT BY HALLIBURTON: We know

the Bush administration disagrees with bipartisan calls to shut down

the prison camp at Guantanamo, but did you know they actually plan on

expanding it? According to Reuters, the Defense Department has hired

the scandal-plagued Halliburton unit Kellogg, Brown, and Root to build

" a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S.

naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. " The new two-story facility,

called Detention Camp #6, will house 220 detainees and will be

completed next year.

 

PROPAGANDA -- ADMIN LAUNCHES DOZENS OF NEW FAUX TV ADS: With CAFTA

shaping up to be the first major trade deal since WWII to fail in

Congress, the Bush administration is turning to the Armstrong Williams

approach. " The U.S. Department of Agriculture has churned out three

dozen radio and television news segments since the first of the year

that promote [the] controversial trade agreement with Central America

opposed by labor unions, the sugar industry and many members of

Congress, including some Republicans, " the Chicago Tribune reports.

(American Progress opposes CAFTA, too -- here's why.)